Sailing Ships: Sssssssssssss
by Diabolus Ruina
Summary: Harry wants to adopt a ‘little cretin’. Tom is skeptical. At first, anyway... My answer to 2NiteItBeginz's challenge. SLASH HPxTRLV


**Title: **Sailing Ships: Sssssssssssssssss

**Author: **Diabolus Ruina

**Pairing: **Harry/Tom (Voldie)

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Harry Potter. Anything you see as belonging to Harry Potter, it belongs to J.K. Rowling.

**Warnings: **slash, very mild, but still there. If you don't like it, don't read it, it's simple

**Notes: **This is my answer to Sarah's challenge (2NiteItBeginz, for those who don't know.) We decided to split it half and half, she gets the het fics, I get slash, because she doesn't feel comfortable writing it. If you decide to flame me, please don't do it because of the slash.

**Summary: **Harry wants to adopt a 'little cretin'. Tom is skeptical. At first, anyway...

**HPTRHPTRHPTRHPTRHPTRHPTR**

"You want to _adopt_ one of these little cretins?"

"They're not _cretins_ Tom, but yes. We can even go through the whole blood adoption, rituals and all."

Tom Riddle sighed irritably, but half melted at the pleading gaze directed his way from imploring green eyes. Those eyes could only belong to Tom's husband, one Harry Potter, and Tom's resolve wavered for a moment before he determinedly snapped his control back into place.

"No!" He barked somewhat quietly, they _were_ surrounded by the little blighters, after all. "You wipe that look off your face right this instant, Harry James Potter! These-" he paused to shudder dramatically- "_children _are like tiny kittens. Once you get one, the rest of them look up at you so pitifully you just _have_ to get more, and then-" Tom broke off what could have become quite the impressive rant when he noticed the rather incredulous look Harry was aiming in his direction. "What?"

"'What' he asks! Tom Marvolo Riddle, you were practically proclaiming how cute you thought little kittens were!" Harry managed to choke out before collapsing onto one of the puffy armchairs in the room and bursting into hysterical laughter.

He finally calmed down a bit, but one look at Tom's affronted expression set him off again and he slid back down to the floor.

Tom was indignant. "Really, you'd think being an evil Dark Lord would get you some respect, but nooooo, all I get is side splitting laughter and a husband who wants to adopt" -another shudder- "a _child_."

Harry picked himself off the floor. "Tom," he began gravely, "You haven't been evil or a Dark Lord for good on fifteen years." he finished with a grin.

"Yeah, well," Tom grumbled, "It's your fault, you know, what with all that 'I will defeat you with the power of luuuuurve' crap."

"How was I supposed to know you'd been possessed by a hate demon?" Harry questioned in tones of mock outrage.

"Dumbledore," Tom promptly informed him. "Dumbledore knows everything. Remember, that's what caused most of my ingenious plans to fail? Ring any bells?"

"Ingenious?" Harry snorted. "And anyway, since when have you known Dumbledore to give anyone a straight answer? Sure, he might've mentioned it, but it was hidden under layers of vagueness, twinkling, and those damnable lemon drops."

"You're right. Hey, let's go ask him why he does that!" Tom suddenly perked up.

"Nice try. It's not gonna work, though. We are leaving here with a baby, and that's _final_." Harry finished in a no - nonsense tone.

"Well alright, _Hermione_," Tom snarked back.

"Hey!"

"Okay, okay." Tom was thoughtful for awhile. "How about that one?" He pointed to a little girl of about three with blonde curls and blue eyes.

"No. She looks like Narcissa, and I really don't want to think of her while looking at our child."

Tom gave a bit of a half smile at the last two words, but shuddered and nodded when the meaning of Harry's words sunk in. The snobby blonde witch was not one of his favorite people by any stretch of the imagination.

"And besides," Harry added. "I want someone young enough that we can name them ourselves." He snuggled into Tom's side as his lover wrapped an arm around him.

They looked around a bit more and both pairs of eyes, scarlet red and emerald green, fell on a set of twins, a girl and a boy about a year and a half old, both with black hair and blue eyes. Though the girl's hair was a bit longer and the boy's was cut rather short, you could still easily tell they were twins.

Harry looked at the girl and thought about how much she resembled Sirius, his late godfather, as a child. He remembered Sirius showing him pictures of himself and his brother, Regulus, when they were young. He gave a soft, sad chuckle as he realized that Sirius would throw a fit if he knew Harry was comparing him to a girl.

Meanwhile, Tom heard Harry's mournful chuckle and felt his grief, but was lost in his own memories as his stared at the small male twin. He was remembering the times before his possession; before he began dabbling in the dark arts. He remembered another small boy with black hair and innocent blue eyes. He remembered looking in the mirror and seeing the purity of youth leave those eyes, and he remembered being unable to stop it. He remembered... himself.

Harry and Tom looked at each other, and then back at the children. They did it again. Harry slowly began to grin and Tom felt a reluctant tugging at the corners of his lips.

"You've a name for the boy, haven't you?" Harry asked knowingly. He had seen the way Tom looked at the infantile little boy.

"Of course," Tom said with a resigned lilt to his voice. "Since I just know you want me to name him after your dogfather, how about... Orion Salazar Riddle - Potter? Now we're both happy."

"Alright," Harry agreed with a thoughtful look on his face. "And for the girl... 'Rose' and 'Lily' are a bit cliché, don't you think? So, maybe... Almeda sounds like a nice, Slytherin name, doesn't it? It means 'ambitious'." At Tom's accepting nod, Harry began the search for a middle name. "Damn, this is harder than I thought it would be," he mumbled. "Suzanne. The point is to be subtle, and Susan's a really great friend. It's just a coincidence that 'Suzanne' means 'Lily'."

"Orion Salazar and Almeda Suzanne." Tom tried the names out. "I like it."

"Of course you do." Harry gave a fake arrogant sniff. "I came up with it, didn't I?"

Tom merely gave a warm chuckle and pulled Harry impossibly closer to place a soft kiss on top of the still messy hair. "That you did, love."

**HPTRHPTRHPTRHPTRHPTRHPTR**

Hi everyone! I hope you liked this fic, if you did, please review! If you didn't, please tell me in a review so I know what I'm doing wrong and can fix it. Thanks, and if you like wrestling slash, go read my other fic, 'In His Smile'!

**Tig**


End file.
